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Searching for cincinnatus: Representatives' backgrounds and voting behavior

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Abstract

Proponents of legislative term limits express concern about professional politicians, individuals who have no other occupation than running for and holding office. Term limits presumably will help allow the reemergence of the citizen-legislator. This paper examines whether pre-political background affects Congressional voting, specifically concentrating on whether a business background affects U.S. Chamber of Commerce vote scores. Business background significantly affects voting in the House, even with party affiliation and corporate and labor campaign contributions included as control variables, but background variables are insignificant for Senate voting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oklahoma, U.S.A.

    Rex Pjesky & Daniel Sutter

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  1. Rex Pjesky
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  2. Daniel Sutter
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Pjesky, R., Sutter, D. Searching for cincinnatus: Representatives' backgrounds and voting behavior. Atlantic Economic Journal 30, 74–86 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02299148

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02299148

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